My 4 month journey of Europe is finished now. 9 Countires, 22 Hotels, trains, planes ferries, 4 rental cars, 10 or 11 AirBnb's (Ive lost count) many splendid Cathedrals, Churches, Monasteries and chapels innumerable ancient sites and museums. We loved them all and even though to many it must seem that we had an abundance of time, often was the occasion we wanted to stay somewhere longer.
We met wonderful amazing people and witnessed for ourselves the incredible overcrowding of the very special and popular sights of France and Italy. We witnessed incredible acts of kindness and generosity and horrible behaviour of some visitors who came to blows over a spot in line at the Vatican Museum. The seat of ...Christianity....
We ate delicious food from France, Italy, Bulgaria, Istanbul and Greece and found great conversation and heartwarming tales among those that served us and that we met along the way.
But the Coda of this trip came at the end, on our return to Paris. We first landed in Paris on April 17th and spent ten days there. We returned on August 15th. We scheduled 2 days there to get ready for our flight home and just think about all we had done and seen along the way. We spent one last day strolling our favorite neighborhood in Paris. We went to our favorite cheese shop and fruit shop and had lunch at a place on Rue Montorguiel. We feasted on Veal Chops and Beef Bourguignon, Snails, fine cheese and a great wine from Burgundy.
After lunch we stopped at a small bar to have an Aperol Spritz and were headed back to Chatelet Les Halles Metro when we noticed the doors to the church of St Eustache were open. Now in our ten previous days in Paris in April, we never found this open when we went by, so we dashed over. Immediately upon crossing the threshold we were awash with the music from the organ and as our eyes were drawn up and up and up to the ribbed Gothic structure that soared overhead bathed in afternoon light from the glorious stained glass we both stopped, mouths agape and tears in our eyes.
St Eustache is to my mind one of Paris' most amazing gothic structures. Built between 1532 and 1632 it stands as one of the jewels of Paris Architecture. And there at the organ sat a young man with a similarly young Music Director at his side. They were practicing for the recital the next day. We sat in awed silence as parts of Bach, Verdi and others were run through. The pipes of this organ are the size of a small house and fill that enormous space with a sound so clear and resonant and moving there just are no words to adequately describe it.
Back outside we felt that this was the perfect end to a great trip and I looked over at my friend and traveling companion Miss Mary and said, in my best imitation of Bogart...We'll always have Paris...